


Mirage

by xantissa



Series: Power Imbalance [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Crows, Gen, Illusions, Itachi being a badass at ten, Some violence in controlled conditions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-21 02:46:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6035005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xantissa/pseuds/xantissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Can be read as stand alone. Itachi's ANBU exam through Kakashi's eyes.</p>
<p>Kakashi knew something wasn't right with the whole thing, he just couldn't put his finger on what exactly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mirage

**Author's Note:**

> I know that Itachi was thirteen when he became ANBU captain, but I have no idea when he became ANBU. So I arbitrarily decided on ten. No matter, his power he would need time to gain experience and mature a bit.  
> This also turned out more meta than action that I intended but I hope I managed to show the strange combination of gentlesness, loyaly, neutrality and ruthlesness that is Uchiha Itachi.
> 
> An: edited because AO3 ate a paragraph:)

It was Shisui who alerted Kakashi that something was odd with the way Uchiha Itachi’s ANBU exam was going.

The teenager was known among Konoha ninja as a very accomplished and downright dangerous ninja, a reputation gained in the last years of the Third Shinobi War. He was also known to be an _absolute mother hen_ when it came to his younger cousin and clan heir - Uchiha Itachi.

So Kakashi found it strange that the boy, instead of watching the exam like a hawk, kept staring everywhere _but_ at the boy.

Still, Kakashi thought back to the beginning, or rather the time he’d finally managed to show up at the ANBU training grounds. For a while he’d debated not showing at all, but curiosity eventually got the better of him.

He had mixed feelings about the young prodigy. Over the last few years as the Uchiha heir started on his frighteningly fast career through the ranks, Kakashi had made a conscious decision to…not look to closely at the boy, lest he see too much of himself in the boy. 

Both were called child geniuses, both graduated from the academy without ever stepping foot inside the building, both were granted frighteningly high ranks at an indecently young age. For some reason, Kakashi couldn’t stand even the thought of getting to know the boy.

ANBU exam at ten years of age was, however, something extreme enough he wanted to see it. Technically, Kakashi was still ANBU captain, but he knew that wasn’t going to be for much longer. He was tired of it, of the killing and the fighting. 

The first part was a pretty standard obstacle course through the Forest of Death, dangerous and demanding, but pretty mundane. It mostly served the purpose of tiring out the prospective candidate than any real check of his abilities.

The second was a stealth test, one of the most important qualities for the ANBU, much more so than being deadly in battle. There was a trail through the calm forest surrounding the Forest Of Death. It was littered with various off-duty ANBU just itching at the thought of scaring the life out of some new kid. Nobody could sneak past this many ANBU in forest this thin, but the examiner made sure to tell the examinees differently. Kakashi though that making the newly-healed Morino Ibiki lead the exams was the best decision Nara had ever made. It was often hilarious to watch him scare the will to live right out the hopefuls. 

This time, Kakashi thought, wouldn’t be any different. Well, maybe a bit. Shisui was an extremely competent ninja, and if he was the one to sponsor Itachi’s entrance into the ANBU, he had to have taught the kid something, right? So Kakashi assumed the Uchiha heir wouldn’t be found within the first ten minutes like the last three candidates, but would last at least fifteen.

Kakashi found his way to the exam grounds thirty minutes after the start of the stealth test, giving a friendly wave to the frowning Gai, and nodding at Nara Shikaku who looked to be half- asleep leaning on a tree.

The young Hyuuga assigned to his team six month ago, Aila, spotted him and made way for him immediately. Like a pack of gossips, sensing fresh meat, Inuzuka Hana and Shiranui Genma moved in his direction as soon as they saw Aila moving. His team, a bunch of bloodthirsty gossips.

“Captain,” came the restrained greeting from Aila. This was hilarious in itself because Kakashi knew just how eager she was for a good piece of gossip. It was actually what made her such a good spy. She didn’t have large chakra reserves, didn’t have any other special skills besides her doujutsu, which would never be on par with the members of the main house, but she could get information out of a stone. Plus she truly loved it.

The others ambled in, making a valiant effort not to look too much in a hurry, and failing miserably. 

Kakashi had deduced something very interesting happened.

“So? How is the boy doing?” He kept still as the black and brown horse masquerading as a dog and belonging to Hana sniffed Kakashi in polite greeting. It always disturbed him just how big the Inuzuka dogs could get.

“Can’t say,” Genma murmured from behind the senbon in his mouth. “Nobody can find him.”

Kakashi gave a long slow blink at Genma. Not because he had such a stunning control of his reflexes, but mostly because he didn’t understand what the other was telling him.

Hana’s nose twitched, then her scarlet painted mouth stretched in a I-know-something-you-don’t smile. 

“He means the kid hid himself so well, nobody could could track him.”

Kakashi felt his eyebrows rise. There were _Hyuuga_ in that forest.

“Maaa, we will just catch him when he comes out for the flag.” The objective given to all the candidates, the false one, was to pass along the marked trail without detection and then steal the flag at the end of it.

The eager and almost shining faces of his people staring at him, almost vibrating with excitement were clue enough.

“Don’t tell me,” he whispered, delighted against his better judgement.

“Yes!” It was Genma who burst first. “The flag is missing! And nobody saw the kid steal it! They are searching for him right now. I think Morino might have taken it a bit personally.”

Kakashi decided he regretted having not eaten breakfast, as this was probably going to be one _long_ exam.

Discreetly, Kakashi made sure to watch the people gathering at the training grounds. There seemed to be more of high-level ninja than before, as the unprecedented news made the rounds through the village. There hadn’t been anybody since Kakashi who had managed to pass the stealth test, and people were becoming interested. Even the Nara looked almost awake as he scanned the treeline from beneath the half-lowered lids.

The next forty minutes were spent watching as people became more and more agitated; one or two Hyuuga stalked back from the forest in a huff, having obviously not managed to track the kid down.

It was Uchiha Shisui who caught Kakashi’s interest though. The boy was sitting on one of the fallen logs everyone used instead for benches. He was stonily staring into the middle distance, very carefully not making eye contact with any of the spectators throwing him curious looks. As Itachi’s cousin, he was the most likely to know how Itachi managed to hide himself so well, but there was an unspoken rule in the village that clan members would never be expected to work against each other. Therefore, Uchiha was the only ninja not actively looking for Itachi. Still, there was something in the studious indifference, so uncharacteristic of the boisterous ninja, which caught Kakashi’s eye. From time to time, his face would twitch as if he wanted to grimace, but managed to stop himself in time, every time.

Eventually, it was Nara Shikaku who came out of his slump and ambled closer to the quietly-fuming Morino Ibiki.

“If you haven’t found him yet, you won’t find him,” Shikaku said with a sigh. “Have his cousin call him in or we will spend the whole day here.”

Jaw clenched, Morino turned to the still-seated Shisui.

“Uchiha,” he snapped, his scarred face twisted into a grimace of impatience. “Make your cousin come out. Tell him he’s passed.” Those last words obviously hurt the poor man to utter. The exam was designed especially to take the hotshot candidates down a peg or two, so that they learned better later on. The fact that Uchiha Itachi passed the first two parts so easily did not bode well for later.

“Yes sir.” Sishui saluted like the perfect cadet. ‘I will need a sandwich though.”

Kakashi was very grateful for the mask hiding his face, as the expression on the faces of all the eavesdropping ninja was priceless.

“Sandwich,” Morino drawled, killing intent dripping from every word.

Shisui didn’t even twitch, even though he was taking the burn of all that killing intent, and Morino’s was an especially potent. 

“As a bribe, sir,” Shisui explained, his eyes wide and innocent-looking. Kakashi immediately went on guard. There was a reason most people didn’t even try pranking Shisui when he joined the ANBU corps, his reputation as an accomplished and sometimes vicious prankster established enough that most people didn’t even try.

Morino’s face remained impassive, but the way his killing aura thickened boded quite badly for the young Uchiha heir.

“Somebody,” the interrogation expert said through clenched teeth. “Get him a sandwich.”

The next ten minutes or so were spent watching Shisui try to tempt any and all crows he could get his eyes on with the sandwich. The black birds cawed at him in a distinctively mocking manner before one finally deigned to fly down and sit on the ground. Unlike the stories told to children, it didn’t peck delicately on the bread but used his beak, which was very large considering the overall size of the bird, to fling the bread away to get at the meat inside.

Kakashi sidled a bit closer to hear what the Uchiha was saying.

“Will you stop making fun of me already and pass Itachi the message? I _know_ you can understand me.” The crow ripped the meat apart into smaller pieces and ate it quickly. “I even _fed_ you, you _menace_.” The bird cawed at him, the sound loud and smug, before launching up in a burst of speed and feathers.

Out of nowhere, another bird answered, cawing loudly, and another, and soon there were dozens, then easily hundreds of crows making a terrible noise, flying down between the spectators causing mayhem and confusion.

Two birds suddenly collided, but instead of falling to the ground, they turned into an indistinguishable spot of black hovering mid-air. Then another bird flew into the hovering blackness, becoming part of it.

Soon, the only noise in the clearing was the sound of the birds; each and every ninja in the area staring at the slowly growing splotch of darkness. More and more birds flew into the blackness, some flying straight out but some becoming part of it. 

Agonizingly slowly, the indistinctive darkness started taking shape, stretching and becoming vaguely humanoid. It was one of the most eerie things Kakashi had ever seen, and he’d seen a lot. The first thing that became visible was a pair of blood red, fully-developed sharingan. After that, the rest of the deceptively slim form took shape.

The boy was tall and well built for a ten year old, but that didn’t change the fact that this was still only a child. It jarred Kakashi, seeing a three tomoe Sharingan fully activated, and judging by the show he was witnessing, also fully mastered, as Kakashi couldn’t say if he was looking at a clone, an illusion or a real person.

The boy was wearing his chuunin uniform, the green vest adorned with small uchiwa symbols on both sleeves. His hair was longer than most ninja would dare grow it, resting on the nape of his neck in a small ponytail. As with most children, his eyes seemed almost too big for his face. It was a delicate, pretty porcelain face with black bangs falling onto his forehead. He was holding the lurid red flag that he’d stole against all expectations.

“Wow.” Genma murmured, making a visible effort to pick up his jaw off the floor.

“Show off,” Hana murmured, her hand scratching her dog’s ruff as they all stared at the stone-faced kid standing calmly in the middle of at least half the high level ANBU of the village.

Kakashi only hummed. To pull off a trick like that, most probably a genjutsu, the boy had to have trapped everybody in the clearing in an illusion. Had to have altered their thought process enough to make himself unnoticeable, and that level of skill… Kakashi had no idea if he was more in awe or more disturbed that a ten year old kid could have such a keen grasp of the art of genjutsu.

He cast a glance back at Shisui, trying to judge if this was something new or something the older Uchiha had been aware of. What he saw on Shisui’s face made him decide to keep a closer eye on the older Uchiha, as his poker face was decidedly worse than that of the boy everybody was staring at now.

Shisui’s brows furrowed and he kept scanning the area, as if looking for something.

*

Kakashi leaned his forearms on the rail surrounding the sunken pit ANBU were using as a match area of sorts.

The third stage of the exam was a taijutsu match where the candidate was expected to protect a target without the use of ninjutsu beyond what he would use to augment his own body. This stage was where medic nin’s usually kicked everybody’s ass, their exceptional chakra control and ability to make good use of the most miniscule amounts of it, giving them an edge.

Itachi looked ridiculously small inside the large sandy pit. His body was all thin limbs, and his face, although schooled into a calm mask, was still very childish and very pretty, looking more like a china doll than a fighter. 

He stood calmly and straight in the middle of the pit, his back to the masked ANBU sitting cross-legged on the floor, simulating a civilian. Itachi’s opponent was Hoshi, ANBU taijutsu expert.

The objective was for Itachi to keep Hoshi away from the civilian he was protecting. Both sides were using taijutsu only. In theory, it was a fair match. In practice, it was a wholly different matter. Hoshi was twenty-seven years old, with at least fifteen years of active service under his belt and vast experience with fighting different opponents. Itachi was a child of war, pushed through the academy and into active service to fill in the thinning ranks. He had experience, but nothing like the amount Hoshi had. The true purpose of this match was to see how far Itachi’s control reached. He would be pushed physically to keep up with Hoshi, an older, much bigger and heavier man, whose stamina far outstripped most of the jounin in the village. The Uchiha were famous for their agility and unique talent for taijutsu, enhanced by the Sharingan’s tracking and predictive abilities. Itachi was however only ten. He would have to use all of his skill just to keep up with Hoshi. Eventually he would start getting frustrated and would either use ninjutsu, something common to all clan kids, or in his frustration, forget the objective of his mission. He would break, all of the candidates broke eventually; it was how and when that were being judged here.

The amount of ninja observing the exam had doubled, until most of the off-duty ANBU were present, leaning on walls, hanging off the rail like Kakashi was, or perched on different surfaces around the pit. 

Morino put extra effort into looking intimidating as he explained the rules of the match. Hoshi wore his usual stern face, not letting on that he was here to basically make the kid lose control. The young Uchiha looked calmly up at the two taller men, his posture straight and attentive, eyes graphite black and focused on Morino, as if the man wasn’t projecting a fairly intense killing intent at him the whole time. For the entire speech, Itachi never lost his attentive look. Shisui on the other hand, kept cringing faintly every few minutes, and was very carefully _not_ looking at his cousin.

When the gong sounded, all eyes turned to the sand pit and the three figures inside. The supposed civilian was sitting still, Itachi facing Hosi in front of him, a figurative line in the sand bordering where Itachi was allowed to move farthest from the target.

It was early in the game, so Hoshi started, letting out a series of fast attacks. Quick punches and frankly vicious kicks that looked like they would shatter bone should they connect.

They didn’t though.

The boy proved once again that if there was one thing the Uchiha clan was fairly reliable at: they could produce brilliant ninja every generation. Itachi surged up to meet every attack, and his innate speed allowed him to mostly deflect the blows. Kakashi had to admit he was a bit in awe of the way the boy used the basic maneuvers to deflect almost all of the force behind Hoshi's attacks.

The first fifteen minutes were spent repeating the same combination of attacks, Hoshi very obviously testing the young heir’s skill and patience. After the fifteen minute mark, Hosi started making harder, more aggressive attacks into Itachi’s territory. The combinations were faster and this time, Hosi reacted to Itachi’s evasive maneuvers, switching attacks fast enough to connect for the first time.

The hard blow Itachi took to his ribs made most of the observers wince, as Hoshi’s fist in comparison to Itachi’s chest looked huge.

The young Uchiha skidded back, having to fall to one knee, one hand on the ground, fingers digging in in order to gain enough traction to lose his momentum and stop the slide. When he stopped, his head was lowered, the long bangs obscuring his face. 

This was it, if the boy activated his sharingan now, it would mean a victory to Hoshi, no matter what happened next. When the Uchiha raised his head, his eyes were dark and flat, his face calm. He straightened in a single smooth move even though his ribs must have hurt him. Even if he had managed to augment his ribs before the blow connected, it still wouldn’t save him the pain. Hoshi hit like a sledge hammer.

This time, when Hoshi attacked again, the Uchiha burst into movement so fast he almost blurred. The boy used his slight size to his advantage and skidded under his opponent’s arm, kneeled and delivered a surprisingly vicious blow to Hoshi’s knee. Then, in a show of stunning agility, he braced his hand on the ground, using it as a pivot point and forced his body into a brief handstand before launching himself into the air in a tight backflip over Hoshi’s head. He landed almost exactly where he’d started, back at the civilian he was protecting and facing his opponent.

There was a grudgingly admiring silence now in the arena, people sensing that the dynamics had changed. 

And it had.

It was a stunning sight really, to see the ten year old keep eerily still until Hoshi moved to attack. The boy always managed to move instantly, using his incredible agility and the acrobatics that Uchiha taijutsu heavily favored to keep out of Hoshi’s range. Itachi went mostly for the joints, the weakest and least enhanced points on a human body. He also went for the same knee over and over again, actually forcing Hoshi to defend himself more than once, effectively foiling his opponent’s plan.

What earned him the hard-won respect of his peers was the fact he always, always ended the encounter in his starting position, even when he managed to land a particularly harsh blow, or when Hoshi was backing off, subtly giving the boy a chance to follow and finish the fight. The boy never forgot the objective of his mission though; he always returned to the starting position between his target and his opponent, not once giving in to the urge to pursue.

No one missed the fact that while Itachi took his share of scrapes and bruises, he never again received a full blow from Hoshi, avoiding each attack with speed and skill many jounin in the village would never posses.

Eventually it was Hoshi who called a stop to the match.

“That’s enough,” the ninja said. “You pass.”

Kakashi looked at Nara, who nodded his head, eyes half open but focused on the kid. Next he looked at Shisui only to be greeted with the same as before sight of the older Uchiha staring intently into the middle distance, not paying a lick of attention to his young cousin. It could have been that he didn't want to look too involved, but people already knew he was involved. There was something wrong with this picture, something Kakashi couldn’t put his finger on yet.

Itachi didn’t show any reaction to being told he’d passed, merely kept his position between Hoshi and the civilian he was protecting until Hoshi left the arena.

“Finally, now it’s going to get interesting.” Aila came up on his left, leaning on the railing so hard, she was half-hanging off of it. Genma was already on Kakashi’s right, chewing on his senbon, and watching the kid below with furrowed brows. Genma was obviously disapproving, but Kakashi had no idea of what.

Hana was on Genma’s other side, her dog sprawled on the floor behind them, taking up more space than any canine animal should. 

“Still, it’s a surprise that a clan brat like him has so much control,” Hana mused, her long nails scraping at the rail every so often with a faint screeching sound.

“He _is_ the Uchiha heir after all,” Aila interjected, her pale eyes focused on the kid.

“He is _ten_ ,” Genma grumbled. “He _shouldn’t_ have to know this kind of self control yet.”

Watching the still, blank boy below them, Kahashi had to agree with Genma. No child should be expected to carry this kind of burden so young. But that was just wishful thinking. In these uncertain times with war still fresh in people's minds, it was fighting ability that counted, not fanciful notions like letting children be children.

There were only two stages of the exam left, both focused on ninjutsu. The one starting now would be a ninjutsu match, but heavily limited. ANBU often operated outside of Konoha's borders, and it was imperative that they never betrayed the village they had come from. Using signature, high-level jutsu was a dead giveaway. No matter what the gossip said, ANBU very rarely used the flashy, powerful, high-level jutsu in their work. It was all about secrecy, diversion and tactics. That was why Kakashi was doing so well in ANBU. His sharingan and innate love for gathering new jutsu had led him to having a whole arsenal of skills, very few of them high level. Most were really the basics, not difficult or chakra-consuming, possible for even a genin to execute. It was his ability to combine the skills into effective tactics that made the difference. And the sheer volume of them.

The Uchiha were like that. It was almost an unspoken Clan Law to copy as many new jutsu as possible. Like kleptomaniacs, they would steal anything they could lay their eyes on.

Itachi was young though, and his chakra reserves were already as big as any jounin, if not bigger. The Uchiha with pure blood in them tended to be true powerhouses of chakra and stamina, the main branch of the clan particularly. At age ten, he would probably want to show off once allowed the use of ninjutsu. 

At this stage of the exam, Itachi would be allowed three techniques. He would have to choose them before meeting his opponent, so he wouldn’t have the chance to gauge his opponent before being committed to a certain course of action. It would be interesting to see just what kind of skills he would use.

The last stage of the exam would be a full ninjutsu battle, with an ANBU of Morino’s choice. That, Kakashi already new, would definitely be the easiest part of the exam for Itachi. As an heir to the whole Clan, he’d probably have been taught techniques even Shisui had never heard of. There were also enough stories about Itachi’s prowess during the war that realistically the only ones capable of truly avoiding his illusions were those carrying the Sharingan themselves. Since the unspoken village rule said that no clan member would be expected to fight against his kin, this meant that neither any Uchiha nor Kakashi would be set as Itachi’s opponent.

Things would be different in a true life or death match, of course, where each side would truly aim to kill the other. In a scenario such as that, there would certainly be more possible candidates to defeat Itachi. In terms of a spar, where immediate fatal techniques were forbidden, and with Kakashi and Shisui out of the running, there really wasn’t anyone to give the boy a challenge.

Kakashi was definitely more interested in the next part coming up. Only three ninjutsu skills for the boy to choose from. One of them would be his bloodline limit, activating the Sharingan being an obvious and logical step. It was the other two choices which intrigued Kakashi.

And everyone else, judging by the expectant hush that suffused the whole arena.

The uchiha heir wasn’t expected to name the skills he chose, but he would be monitored in chakra use by everyone present, so it would be impossible to sneak anything by so many people.

The moment Morino Ibiki signalled the start of the fourth stage, Itachi’s eyes bled red. 

There was a murmur in the room, the blazing red eyes causing a stir. Unlike the Hyuuga and their Byakugan, there was something inherently mysterious and threatening about the Sharingan. No only did it look vaguely demonic - the sudden shift from plain black eyes to the glowing red, but also the skill it granted the owner, it was simply disturbing . It allowed him to track movement, predict it, and allow him to see chakra patterns to some extent. That last thing was probably why the Hyuuga hated the Sharingan so much. There was something eerie in the way Uchiha with awakened Sharingan fought. As if there were no secrets to other people’s taijutsu. It made it seem so easy just to conquer it. Casting an illusion on a highly trained Uchiha was all but impossible; only members of their own clan could even attempt such a thing, others would be simply laughed out. The perfect recall the Sharingan allowed made creating perfect illusions ridiculously easy. It made distinguishing reality from illusion also easy, as no one without the Sharingan had such a perfect memory to recreate all the tiny details flawlessly with such high definition. This took more than just the skill though. There was something disturbing in the way Uchiha with Sharingan fought, moved, even looked at things. There was something other, something different, that made people feel…uncomfortable, wary, often downright hostile.

Kakashi slouched even more against the railing, hating to admit that he was just as engrossed in the show as everyone else.

The little boy stood straight and still in the pit, his eyes blazing red, the three tomoe spinning the pupil lazily. Kakashi couldn’t tell if he was afraid or excited, his face a perfectly blank mask.

Isao was Itachi’s chosen opponent. A swordsman, much like the boy himself was rumored to be. Isao used a longer, curved blade whereas Itachi used a short, straight blade more suited to his small stature. As a child, Kakashi also used short swords. When he’d grown into his lanky form, he’d switched to kunai. Something about the swords stopped appealing to him a while ago.

As the opponents seized each other, the Uchiha made a series of hand seals, the break-neck speed blurring the figures together. Kakashi had no chance of recognizing them without his sharingan uncovered. He only managed to catch a few signs that indicated some kind of fire jutsu.

Everybody quieted even more, waiting to see what kind of explosive fire jutsu the uchiha heir would use. The boy breathed in and then touched his fingers to his mouth when he started to exhale.

There were no flames. Nothing visible or particularly showy about his moves. In the next minute he touched the same fingers to the flat side of his blade, and ran them down the length of the bared sword. 

Still nothing happened.

Kakashi could hear the disappointed murmur of the people gathered around, all hoping for a show. Even Genma grumbled under his breath.

He watched the boy lower his sword, the tip pointing at the ground at his side, his stance attentive but overall relaxed. He was obviously not going to be the first one to attack. There was something disturbingly passive about the boy. It rubbed Kakashi the wrong way to see somebody with so much skill and power be this…neutral.

Isao attacked, a fairly standard series of lunges and thrusts, just something to feel the boy out, see how he moved and reacted, see what he chose to do.

Itachi evaded instead of blocking, something Kakashi had already noticed about him. He rarely, if ever allowed physical contact between himself and his opponent, preferring to completely evade attacks. In a real battle he would probably be a predominantly genjutsu-user.

The first few minutes of the confrontation were spent with the boy twisting and turning, jumping all over the pit to avoid Isao’s blows, sword always pointed towards the ground and trailing slightly behind his body. It was curious that the boy didn’t use the sword for blocking.

Kakashi sent a glance towards Shisui, who kept fidgeting from time to time, and still keeping his eyes firmly away from his cousin. There was a good chance of Itachi being hurt, and Shisui, known as he was for being overprotective of his younger cousin, should have been all over the boy. Instead he was _still_ not looking at him at all.

Isa was getting frustrated with the boy’s speed, Kahashi could tell, and finally decided to stop the playing around. With a lighting-fast combination he forced the boy against the wall. His sword was arching towards Itachi’s neck with enough speed to kill the boy if he didn't block, and Itachi did, finally raise his sword.

The clash of steel on steel was still ringing in the arena when Isao suddenly jumped back, letting go of his sword. It was a stunning sight to see the sword master let go of his weapon so quickly and seemingly for no reason.

Every eye in the room focused on Itachi, now standing still and straight in the middle of the arena again, not moving to continue his attack, his sword again pointed at the ground.

“What the hell…?” Hana muttered, trying to see whatever it was that forced Isao to retreat so far.

Aila activated her Byakuugan, veins bulging out around her eyes unattractively.

“What do you see Aila?”

The woman hummed.

“It’s very faint but there’s traces of extremely over-heated air around the sword the boy is holding. There’s also traces of a very high temperature around Isao’s sword.” She pointed to where it was lying in the ground, the sand around it blackening slightly. “And around Isao’s right hand.”

“Oh, that’s just vicious to use that kind of jutsu against a swordsman,” Hana said, but there was an edge of grudging admiration in her voice. 

“What I’m interested in is why his own sword is not too hot to handle if contact with it is what made Isao’s sword dangerously hot in just a few seconds,” Genma said quietly.

Aila focused on the sword Itachi was holding, not displaying any kind of strain. “I have no idea. Everything looks normal.”

Kakashi, it turned out was just a curious as everyone else, and decided that a bit of a strain wouldn’t kill him. He raised his forehead protector up for a brief moment, letting his sharingan take in the scene below. He could see the tightly controlled strains of chakra twisting around the sword, flowing almost gently to the ground and could see the potential of unbearable heat in them. As he turned his gaze towards the boy himself, he almost immediately choked, slamming the forehead protector down against his transplanted eye.

Now he knew why Shisui was so careful about not looking at Itachi at all throughout most of the exam.

*

 

Kakashi found the boy at the dango shop. Or rather Pakkun tracked the boy there. He was sitting alone at the furthest table, a sugar sticky plate in front of him with a pile of wooden sticks indicating that he’d eaten a lot of dango. It made for a quietly hilarious sight though. He was licking his fingers clean with utter focus and beside him, an obviously young crow was preening his feathers with the same kind of focus.

Kakashi didn’t even bother trying to be stealthy. He’d already noticed two crows watching him carefully from the nearest tree. Just as he’d expected, when he took a step towards the boy, one of the crows cawed loudly.

The Uchiha heir looked up, his dark eyes catching sight of Kakashi immediately.

“Kakashi-san,” he greeted politely, much more politely than any Uchiha not directly under Kakashi’s command. All of them felt his transplanted eye was a slight against them.

The boy looked so normal with his pet crow, eating sweets as if it was a normal day.

“Were you planning to come back at all?” Kakashi asked, sitting beside the boy without asking for permission. The crow on the table puffed itself to twice it’s size and half spread his wings at Kakashi, trying to make himself bigger, scarier.

Itachi only looked at Kakashi with his big dark eyes, seemingly unaware of how pretty a child he was.

“For the full ninjutsu match, I’m curious who will be my opponent.” And he did sound curious. Childishly excited even, as if not fully grasping the enormity of what he’d already accomplished.

“I doubt the final stage of the exam will be taking place,” Kakashi mused, watching the aggressively-posturing bird and the entirely placid child. “After all, nobody noticed that it was your clone taking the exam, not you, so I doubt anyone would need further proof of your grasp of ninjutsu.”

The boy looked in equal parts dismayed and proud of himself. 

“What gave me away?” Itachi asked, crumpling the napkin he was using to clean his hands and throwing it into the trash can nearby.

“Shisui, actually.” This time the boy looked at Kakashi with dismay, obviously wanting to accuse him of lying. Loyal, that one.

“He was trying so hard not to look at you, it made me suspicious.”

The boy looked at Kakashi with those incredibly dark eyes for a moment before nodding slightly.

“So did I pass?” Itachi asked, reaching his hand to smooth down the feathers of his agitated feathery friend.

Kakashi looked into the sky, trying not to think of all the things ANBU were required to do, all the things a ten year old boy shouldn’t even be aware of, much less be forced to do.

“I am sure that as soon as Ibiki stops cursing your name, he will announce your acceptance into the ANBU ranks,” Kakashi answered not looking at the boy by his side.

Maybe it was time to resign from ANBU. He was getting tired, too tired to pretend not to see all the disturbing things that were happening out of people's sight, in the shadows of black ops.

*

A week later, a new ANBU by the codename “Crow” was welcomed into the highly-classified ANBU unit. 

That same day, an ANBU Captain, codename Dog, resigned from service.

 

End.


End file.
